The life spans of people today are increasing continuously thanks to the improvement of life environments and the development of medical technology. Furthermore, recently, people have emphasized the aspect of the quality of life, in addition to the extension of life-spans. People's interest in the improvement of the quality of life spans a variety of fields. One of these fields is orthodontics.
Orthodontics is directed to recovery from dental parafunctions, such as congenital or acquired damage to or loss of teeth, or the malocclusion of teeth. In particular, in the field of orthodontics, the development and application of new technologies are further promoted by the growth of the aged population that is attributable to the extension of life spans. Furthermore, orthodontics is important not only in the aspect of the recovery of tooth functions, but also in the cosmetic aspect. Many people make investments in dental treatments that are directed to the improvement of their appearances because people's looks are significantly changed simply by reconstructing damaged or lost teeth with prosthetic teeth material or performing the slight straightening of teeth.
Orthodontics may be divided into a plurality of branches. In particular, the branch of interest here is the straightening of teeth. The straightening of teeth is performed in such a way as to gradually move teeth to desired locations by continuously exerting orthodontic force on the teeth over a long period of time. Accordingly, in order to realize the straightening of teeth, one or more tools for exerting orthodontic force are installed in a patient's mouth.
In the past, in order to move a row of teeth, for example, in order to move a protruding mouth backward, a full-arch appliance that embraces the overall dental arch in the form of an arch has been frequently used. This orthodontic tool moves the row of teeth backward chiefly using molar teeth as an anchoring base. However, this anchoring structure makes it difficult to realize desired orthodontic effects because the reaction force of the orthodontic force is exerted on the molar teeth, which are anchoring bases.
Accordingly, recently, thanks to the help of the development of orthodontic technology, a fast orthodontic system, for example, a skeletal anchorage system (SAS), using a dental skeleton (alveolar bone) as an anchoring base was attempted. This fast orthodontic system has the advantage of achieving excellent orthodontic effects within a short period of time compared to the former systems because the fast orthodontic system exerts orthodontic force directly on teeth that have to be straightened.
However, this fast orthodontic system is problematic in that when a fastener is inserted into a gap between the root of a tooth and the alveolar bone, the fastener is removed from the alveolar bone or touches a nerve in the root of the tooth over time because the location at which a fastener, for example, a mini-screw, is determined using a 2D image.
In order to overcome the above problems, a method using cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) and volume data was introduced. However, this method is problematic in that it is not suitable for a user finding the appropriate location at which a fastener, for example, a mini-screw, will be inserted because the user personally analyzes and uses data on an axial, sagittal or coronal 2D screen.
Therefore, there is a need for a method for determining the appropriate location of the alveolar bone at which a fastener will be inserted.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.